#5Books: Book recs and time outs

So family stuff has been brewing for a bit, and it’s meant that we’ve had family from overseas has come to stay for the past two weeks. It was fun having them around, and exhausting at the same time because it was a quick fast visit and it involved lots of nights catching up, and lots of nights not blogging and catching up with everyone’s reviews and happenings.

It’s quiet right now, and it’s kinda weird considering how noisy it’s been. Having family overseas is bloody hard, but it’s always glorious having them around. And now, I am in serious need of a time out!

We’ve been waiting for an hour. That’s what Audrey says. She states it with a little bit of an edge, her words just bordering on cursive. That’s the thing I think first. Not: Audrey Hepburn is at my birthday dinner, but Audrey Hepburn is annoyed.

At one point or another, we’ve all been asked to name five people, living or dead, with whom we’d like to have dinner. Why do we choose the people we do? And what if that dinner was to actually happen? These are the questions Rebecca Serle contends within her utterly captivating novel, The Dinner List, a story imbued with the same delightful magical realism as One Day,and the life-changing romance of Me Before You.

When Sabrina arrives at her thirtieth birthday dinner she finds at the table not just her best friend, but also three significant people from her past, and well, Audrey Hepburn. As the appetizers are served, wine poured, and dinner table conversation begins, it becomes clear that there’s a reason these six people have been gathered together.

Delicious but never indulgent, sweet with just the right amount of bitter, The Dinner List is a romance for our times. Bon appetit.

I love the premise of this — which five people would you invite to your dinner? What would you talk about at dinner? I would have Freddie Mercury as one of my guests, I think.

A darkly thrilling take on the fashion world, #FashionVictim is Heathers meets The Devil Wears Prada.

Fashion editor Anya St. Clair is on the verge of greatness. Her wardrobe is to die for. Her social media is killer. And her career path is littered with the bodies of anyone who got in her way. She’s worked hard to get where she is, but she doesn’t have everything.

Not like Sarah Taft. Anya’s obsession sits one desk away. Beautiful, stylish, and rich, she was born to be a fashion world icon. From her beach-wave blonde hair to her on-trend nail art, she’s a walking editorial spread. And Anya wants to be her friend. Her best friend. Her only friend.

But when Sarah becomes her top competition for a promotion, Anya’s plan to win her friendship goes into overdrive. In order to beat Sarah…she’ll have to become her. Friendly competition may turn fatal, but as they say in fashion: One day you’re in, and the next day you’re dead

When Paula picks up her last passenger of the night, all she sees is a few more dollars to put toward her husband’s medical bills. That’s before she recognizes the quiet stranger in her back seat as a world-famous musician and realizes the woman waiting at his destination is not his equally famous wife. So, Paula does what any down-on-her-luck woman would do.

She asks for money in exchange for silence.

But when a woman is murdered in the same building days later, Paula discovers she is the only witness to the secret affair—an affair that incriminates the musician. Now, Paula’s silence comes at a much more dangerous price.

I’ve had Uber on my mind recently, because after a perfectly nice ride, I dropped from a rating of 5 to 4.67 and I still cannot for the life of me figure out why. But on the upside, haven’t yet experienced anything like this in my Uber ride/s (which also, such a cool premise!). And I am kind of liking that Paula sells her silence — it makes her all the more interesting and complex. (What’s the weirdest Uber ride you’ve had?)

A new novel of supernatural horror (and pop culture) from the author of Horrorstor, My Best Friend’s Exorcism, and Paperbacks from Hell.

In the 1990s, heavy metal band Dürt Würk was poised for breakout success — but then lead singer Terry Hunt embarked on a solo career and rocketed to stardom as Koffin, leaving his fellow bandmates to rot in rural Pennsylvania.

Two decades later, former guitarist Kris Pulaski works as the night manager of a Best Western – she’s tired, broke, and unhappy. Everything changes when she discovers a shocking secret from her heavy metal past: Turns out that Terry’s meteoric rise to success may have come at the price of Kris’s very soul.

This revelation prompts Kris to hit the road, reunite with the rest of her bandmates, and confront the man who ruined her life. It’s a journey that will take her from the Pennsylvania rust belt to a Satanic rehab center and finally to a Las Vegas music festival that’s darker than any Mordor Tolkien could imagine. A furious power ballad about never giving up, even in the face of overwhelming odds, We Sold Our Souls is an epic journey into the heart of a conspiracy-crazed, paranoid country that seems to have lost its very soul…where only a girl with a guitar can save us all.

This reminds me of one of the plotlines in the now neverending Supernatural, but also — this premise just made me sit up and go YESSSS! I don’t know if i’d make it all the way through a horror like this, but I think I might enjoy trying.

The Girl on the Train meets Before I Go to Sleep with a dash of Bridget Jones in this chilling tale of love gone horribly wrong …

Some love affairs change you forever. Someone comes into your orbit and swivels you on your axis, like the wind working on a rooftop weather vane. And when they leave, as the wind always does, you are different; you have a new direction. And it’s not always north.

Any woman who’s ever been involved with a bad, bad man and been dumped will understand what it feels like to be broken, broken-hearted and bent on revenge. Taylor Bishop is hurt, angry and wants to destroy Angus Hollingsworth in the way he destroyed her: Insidiously. Irreparably. Like a puzzle, he’d slowly dissembled … stolen a couple of pieces from, and then discarded, knowing that nobody would ever be able to put it back together ever again. So Taylor consulted The Art of War and made a plan. Then she took the next step – one that would change her life forever.

Then things get really out of control – and The Sunday Girlbecomes impossible to put down.

So first, I tend to roll my eyes at the if you liked (almost always in the thriller genre) Girl on the Train and … the other Girl book, which for the life of me I can’t remember and I can’t be bothered Googling. But throw in Bridget Jones and The Art of War, and that’s a combination I would NEVER have put together.

8 Comments

Gone Girl – you’re thinking about Gone Girl right? I hated that book and I hate the comparisons as well. I think all 5 of these sound wonderful. I’ve already got We Sold Our Souls and The Dinner List on my wishlist but I can’t help but add the rest. If only I could read faster. Freddie Mercury would be a great dinner guest. You know I’d have to have Stephen King and Prince. Now there’s a combination huh?

I’ve never used Uber and never will! I’ve seen too many stories of drivers sexually assaulting and raping women after taking detours so I’ll just stay in my house nice and safe at night with my books! The Night In Question does sound interesting though.